Pittsburgh police use pepper spray on energy summit protesters

Pittsburgh police deployed pepper spray late Tuesday afternoon against roughly two dozen protesters outside the Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit at Carnegie Mellon University as the gathering was breaking up.

Clad in riot gear, about 20 officers warned the protesters to clear the intersection of Forbes Avenue and South Craig Street in the city’s Oakland section.

The protesters refused, locking arms and yelling.

Police used pepper spray on them twice just before 5:30 p.m. and told the protesters if they did not leave the area, they would be physically removed.

As police gave orders, attendees of the summit, which featured President Donald Trump, members of his Cabinet and numerous tech, energy and financial leaders, gathered on the opposite side of Forbes from the protesters.

Within a half hour, police had cleared the intersection and left the area.

Staying behind was a group of protesters standing on the sidewalk and shouting at cars.

There were no arrests.

Police had reopened Forbes to traffic by 6 p.m.

The summit and, in particular, Trump’s involvement has drawn some critics.

Early Tuesday afternoon, more than 100 protesters, many chanting and holding signs criticizing the president, walked from Schenley Plaza to South Craig Street and Forbes Avenue in the center of Pittsburgh’s university district.

Authorities shut down Forbes to traffic in both directions for several blocks, stretching from South Craig to around Morewood Avenue.

By mid-afternoon, the crowd of protesters had thinned out to less than half the size. Roughly an equal number of police officers, all wearing riot gear, lined up, with about two dozen from the Allegheny County Police Department blocking South Craig and another two dozen from Pittsburgh standing across Forbes.

By 3 p.m., the county officers had departed and the number of protesters had dwindled to perhaps a dozen.

The demonstrations came after weeks of complaints from CMU students, faculty and other members of the campus community, who say the university is effectively cosigning the administration’s policies by inviting several key members to campus.

Specifically, they’ve cited Trump’s efforts to slash federal research funding, deport foreign-born students and marginalize transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.

Megan Trotter and Justin Vellucci are TribLive staff writers. Megan can be reached at mtrotter@triblive.com, Justin at jvellucci@triblive.com.